Slices of the city: A brief history of Vancouver told through pizza

When the global history of pizza is written, Vancouver will not play a starring role. That honour will go to Naples or New York.

But pizza can help us understand the history of Vancouver’s past century: a story of immigration, multiculturalism, entrepreneurship, art, innovation, commerce and crime.

Modern pizza originated in southern Italy in the 18th or 19th century, and the dish has always been associated with its country of origin: The classic Margherita pizza, the story goes, was named after Queen Margherita of Italy, patriotically topped with green basil, white mozzarella, and red tomato sauce to match the colours of the Italian flag.

Ever since its arrival here about 70 years ago, Vancouver’s pizza has — like the city — been shaped by people from all over the world.

Some Italians — and Italian Americans and Italian Canadians — are purists, aggressively loyal to a specific, rigid idea of how pizza, the food of heaven, should or shouldn’t be prepared.